Bulgaria's medical system is causing a serious headache for everyone in a country which - despite massive healthcare investment and the most hospitals per capita in the European Union - has the highest death rate across the bloc.

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä said his centre-right coalition government could collapse today (6 November) if it fails to reach agreement on healthcare reforms that envisage spending cuts of up to €3 billion.

"Patient involvement in health-related EU projects is fundamental to patient-centred, equitable healthcare throughout the EU. 'Meaningful patient involvement' means putting the patient at the centre of healthcare policy so that their specific knowledge and experience can feed into the decision-making process," writes Nicola Bedlington, director of the European Patients' Forum, in an exclusive commentary for EURACTIV.

Switching from hospital care to monitoring and treating patients in their homes will help make public health spending more cost-efficient, according to Edwin Kohl, chairman of healthcare lobby group Costeff.

Switching from hospital care to monitoring and treating patients in their homes will help make public health spending more cost-efficient, according to Edwin Kohl, chairman of healthcare lobby group Costeff.

The Netherlands has the best healthcare system in Europe, according to the annual Euro Consumer Index. Dutch healthcare was top of the list for the second year running, this time with an even bigger margin of victory.

The European Parliament has passed a landmark directive which would allow Europeans seek healthcare abroad more easily and be reimbursed for the cost of doing so. However, EU member states are still working to iron out a range of practical difficulties before the plan can be formally adopted.

Despite some progress, EU health ministers meeting yesterday (16 December) in Brussels remained divided over a draft directive regarding the application of patients' rights to treatment in other member states.

Gathering for an informal meeting on 8-9 September, the ministers emphasised the need to improve coordination and speed up reactions at European level to enable authorities to efficiently protect the public in case of major outbreaks of contagious diseases like avian influenza, SARS and yellow fever.

A recent proposal to ease reimbursement of the health care European citizens receive while visiting other EU countries is just "the beginning of a long row," predicted a top Commission official as German diplomats warned they may challenge the legal basis of the draft directive.

A Commission proposal published yesterday (2 July) to make it easier for citizens to seek care abroad could see its effectiveness limited after new clauses were introduced. These would allow member states to require patients to get prior authorisation for foreign hospital care and pay upfront themselves.

As the Commission readies to propose rules to improve cross-border access to health care in the EU, the 27 member states together with 26 other World Health Organization (WHO) European region countries have committed to more accountability regarding the way their health systems are financed.

Increased cross-border patient mobility has public finance implications but better co-ordination of national health policies and more co-operation at European level is expected to bring benefits both to patients and health systems. However, the directive on cross-border healthcare remains blocked at European Council level.

Tackling health threats such as avian flu and ensuring safe, efficient and equitable access to cross-border healtcare will be top priorities of the EU public health policy agenda in the years to come, predicted the Commission's public health director Andrzej Ry? in an interview with EURACTIV.

Member states will need to adapt their national health systems to prepare for the expected increase in long-term health services due to the EU's ageing demographics, according to a new study published by the Commission.

EU data and a World Health Organisation (WHO) report have highlighted the need for improved health systems to deal with a rise in drug-resistant tuberculosis in Eastern Europe and former Soviet states.